My Evaluation

                                       Evaluation

My initial goal for my college magazine front cover was to make a magazine that looked professional by following other magazine guidelines such as the 3 colour scheme, however I was not able to follow it strictly because I had used a red skyline banner at the top. This unfortunately counts as a 4^th colour alongside my already used colours of greyish blue, dark greyish blue and a slightly faded yellow however I stand by my choice of using the red banner because it surprisingly meshes well with the other colours and does draw the reader’s eye. Despite this minor problem I still think that my magazine looks relatively professional because I feel that it resembles the more professional magazines that I looked at and mainly my inspiration the College magazine with Mike Posner on the front. I think the part that pulls all of my magazine cover together was the font because it stands out really well, it does not seem too childish or too mature and to me personally feels like it was perfect for a magazine aimed at teenagers. Especially for the masthead because it is really clear.

For the contents page I was more determined to follow a 3 colour scheme however I was again unsuccessful. I was inspired by the style of Kerrang who sometimes use a whole image for the front cover and Rocksound who use a watermark of their logo in their background. Inspired by these styles I opted to use a faded image for the background that was visible to the reader like the Kerrang magazine contents page but not draw all of the attention like the Rocksound magazine contents page. I also used this as an opportunity to experiment with the use of a puff.

What I think was good about my front cover was the use of colours that worked well at making each other standout, I don’t think that they clash in anyway at all. I also think that the background is interesting and good to look at but I feel that having a proper background image would have worked better and looked more professional. I think that the cover image was good because it linked to an article that I was going to hypothetically have inside my magazine and it linked with a cover line on the front cover. The only problems with it is that I think that the cover line that linked to the image should have been closer to the image in fact it should have replaced the cover line that was on the image ‘Also we countdown the ten best bags for college’. One more problem is that Irnidas’s shirt was not photo shopped that well and it is very clear to the reader that it is. During the process of developing my front cover I experimented with the colours and ended up with two designs I was unsure which one was better so I left it to the people who view my blog to decide by posting both designs on my blog. One person who saw my blog commented that they liked the blue background better because ‘’the colour scheme is more simple/professional”. Someone else said “I personally think that you should use the blue one just because it doesn't strain your eyes when looking at it, as it blends in well with the people on the front cover”.

I quite like my contents page because I feel like I was able to incorporate the original ideas that inspired me really well, I am also really pleased with the layout and I think it all fits together well because no part seems forced or out of place. In my original plan I wanted to add more photos but I think that the ones I have right now are enough. The only photo placement I do not like is the book case at the bottom right because it seems out of place and looks a little awkward. I think the puff was risky but it just about works, I think it would be better to choose a different font for it next time to make it more interesting to look at. I think that it would be a better idea to make the title bigger because that would make it look better. I am quite fond of the red outline around the letters in the title because it subtly draws your attention to it. I also think that the page numbers should be bigger because they would seem clearer to the reader that way.

For improvement next time I would focus on following a 3 colour scheme more closely to make the magazine seem more professional, I think it would help if I made a detailed plan beforehand.

Another change I would make is having a better cover image that has a background if the image is not that big like my one otherwise I would use a Photoshop made background if the image is big and covers a large amount of the cover.

One final change would be to utilise different techniques like puffs and cover lines more effectively for my front cover.